More Than Anything
by Shinga
Summary: MWPPL: In their 7th year, Lily is determined to prove that she's worthy to be an addition to the infamous Marauders. But she discovers in time that they're not all fun and pranks. Funness. Fluff. My first MWPP, RR!


"More Then Anything" 

By: Shinga

Rated: **PG-13** for mild language, sexual hints, and prank ideas that little kids might take too seriously ;)

Disclaimer: Pretty much everything here belongs to JK Rowling. However, the idea for the weather balloon prank originated with my teacher's husband, who played this prank on a college professor(with mild differences... ;)). Thank God for prank stories in class. ;) Also, the owl scene was an idea from my mom back when she still liked Harry Potter O_o And Kate is original, but not important ;)

A/N: Evil can be so much fun sometimes. ;) Anyway, started out just a fun little thing I wanted to do with Lily being a prankster, then it sort of got funny/sappy-near-the-end. Anyway, it's my first ever Marauder fic ever, so enjoy it. Judge kindly. Also, R/R it ;)

****

"And that's that," said Sirius, sitting down on the chair across from Lily, smirking broadly and folding his hands in his lap. "Well, Lil, what do you think?"

Lily was absolutely perplexed. She looked around at the four of them in turn. Peter was looking nervous at the whole idea, but smiling. Remus was shaking his head, but he was obviously going along with the whole thing. James, who sat beside her, looked entirely against it. She looked at him longer then the rest, and he noticed too. 

"You don't have to do this, Lily," he said lamely, and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"James, _please_," he said flatly. "You two are _dating_. She found the map last week. Either she becomes one of us, or I'm sorry, but we'll have to kill her."

James ignored his best friend and took Lily's hand, blushing lightly. "I'm serious," he said to her, ignoring Sirius piping up with "No, _I_ am". "You don't have to do anything. You might get in trouble, after all. We wouldn't want to tarnish your chances of being Head Girl or anything."

Lily raised an eyebrow at him. The same eyebrow she always raised, the left one, that said 'what the _hell_ did you just suggest?'. Sirius fell instantly silent and Remus stopped shaking his head long enough to stare. Peter squeaked, which he did quite often when he smelled trouble. "James Potter," she said slowly. "I know you think I'm a prefect because I'm perfect and all. Like I've never had a bad detention in my life, but I'll have you know that I'm _perfectly_ capable of being as much of a troublemaker as you four are!"

There was a pause. James looked frankly embarrassed, and Sirius broke the silence with a suspicious, "_Have_ you ever had detention?"

Lily blushed this time. "Well, no, just..."

"Ha!"

"But only because I wasn't caught."

Sirius gawked and Remus snorted. "But since summer is already here," said Peter. "I guess it'll have to wait until next year."

This brought on a bit of a thoughtful pause. Lily knew she would most likely be Head Girl next year, and there were whispers around the prefects that James might make Head Boy, despite him fighting against Sirius for the most detentions a Hogwarts student ever obtained. However, this wasn't stopping Lily. She raised her head high. "Next year then," she said. "You'd better be ready for Lily Evans to be the last addition to the Marauders."

Sirius smiled to James good-naturedly. "I guess this means I'm being replaced as your favorite Marauder?"

"Naturally," said Remus calmly, surprising them all by talking. "After all, Sirius, he's not sleeping with _you_."

James nearly fell off the couch, Peter choked, and Sirius stared in shock. Lily only laughed and began to plan her transformation.

****

The summer passed on with Lily frantically writing down every prank she could think of that James, Sirius, Remus and Peter hadn't done. Even by August this was a very short list. However, she found that her being Muggle-born brought on some advantages. All of the Marauders were either full-blood or half, and so none of them had ready access to Muggle items as she did. Petunia was growing constantly suspicious of all the things Lily kept buying that summer and packing into her trunk.

"What is _this_ for?" asked Petunia, sniffing in disdain and picking up a whoopee cushion. Lily blushed madly and plucked it quickly from her sister's hand, shoving it to the bottom of the trunk.

"Prank material," she said shortly.

"_Prank_?" Petunia snorted. "What, you can't use your little _magic_ _tricks_ to play them? That's a normal prankster material, Lillian. Besides, it's immature."

"Who said magic _won't_ help it?" asked Lily angrily. Her sister was getting irritating, as per usual. "Now get out before I show you some mature magic."

Petunia, even though she knew Lily's rule of not using magic in the summer, paled and stormed out of the room as if it was her idea to leave. Lily sighed and checked off materials on her list. In two weeks, she would leave for King's Cross and James would be very surprised this summer. Though, she thought with a smile, probably not as surprised as Sirius. James very well knew how wild she was.

Then she stopped to realize how really bad that thought sounded.

****

Lily spotted James across the platform, talking loudly to a couple of younger Gryffindors, lecturing them on being 'good little boys and girls'. They seemed unconvinced, and Lily rolled her eyes at the irony of it all. She smiled though, noticed his Head Boy badge matching beautifully with her Head Girl one. He saw her and waved, grinning a bit stupidly. He walked toward her, and Lily waited, smiling brightly.

However, Sirius blocked James' way and walked quicker to Lily, confusing James. Sirius leaned down and lightly kissed Lily on the cheek, surprising her greatly. It had the same effect on James, who looked as if he could have cursed Sirius on the spot. Sirius looked calm.

"_Sirius_?" Lily asked, gawking.

"Hm? Oh, that. I just wanted to beat James to it this year."

"Prat," James snapped, seizing Lily by the hand and kissing her on the lips, much longer then Sirius' kiss. She heard Sirius mutter under his breath about a 'free show'. James pulled away and glared at his best friend, who smiled innocently.

"Hey, guys!" Peter scrambled up to them, his blonde hair frayed and his nose pink. "Remus is helping with stuff on the train, you know. Oh, hi Lily."

"What, I wasn't included in 'guys'?" asked Lily, smiling.

"No, because last James checked, you don't have a..." Sirius stopped when James shot him a venomous look. He considered his words, the nodded and concluded with, "An adam's apple."

"Good save," said James. "Oh, is that your trunk, Lily? You need us to help you?" he shot Sirius a look, who began droning on about slavery laws, when Lily grinned.

"It's heavier then usual," she said, waiting until they had lifted it. Sirius squeaked.

"No kidding?" he demanded as they very slowly, grunting and sweating, took her trunk to the train.

"What, did you pack your sister this year?" asked Peter, watching them in puzzlement.

"Oh, no," said Lily. "I don't pack things that might tarnish the rest. Anyway, I packed a few things that might help me this year. And since Sirius isn't here, and he didn't ask, I'll answer anyway... no, _not_ condoms."

"What then?"

"Oh, just... items. You guys will be seeing a lot of them this year."

Peter at first looked confused, then the light seemed to come on in his head. "You mean for the pranks thing? You're really going through with it?"

"What, you thought I wouldn't?" Lily asked, eyeing him oddly.

Peter pouted. "Well, sort of. If it's any comfort, I just lost ten Galleons. 'Scuze me, I have to go pay James and Sirius." He walked off toward the boys who were motioning for Lily to come with them into the train. She smiled and followed.

****

Peter obviously told everyone about Lily's trunk. James and Sirius had already guessed why it was heavy, and Remus was highly amused by the entire deal. He wasn't, of course, without concern for Lily. James had softened toward the idea of Lily being a prankster this year, and had to tell Remus to lighten up. Sirius leaned in to Lily.

"Lils, will any of the pranks involve Snape? Please say yes."

"Yes."

"Brilliant! Are you serious?"

"No, you are. But who knows, I might be too. A few of these could be for him." Lily only smiled and refused to explain any of her plans to them.

"If they're better then ours," said Remus. "I'll be disappointed that we didn't recruit her sooner."

"This year promises to be memorable," said James, smiling. "And Lily, if you ever need the map, you'll let us know, won't you?"

"Same if you need to blame us for anything. The professors will believe it." Sirius.

"Or if you need our help," Peter piped up with.

"Or just want to strangle us to death for ever dragging you into this idea," said Remus calmly. Everyone stopped and looked at him.

"Or you could just strangle Remus," said Sirius brightly. "That'll work too."

Remus scowled at him.

"What? Rem, I've _seen_ Lily strangle people. She strangled Snape in our third year, remember that? Sorry, I don't want that. I'm too young to die."

"Prat." 

Sirius smirked. "I've just been called a prat twice this year, and we're not even at Hogwarts."

"Prat."

"Third times the charm. Thanks, Lil."

"Prat."

"_Peter_! You just ruined it!"

"Do you four _always_ have this mature of conversations?" asked Lily, raising an eyebrow at Sirius, who shrugged.

"Could be worse," he said. "We once argued if food could taste its color. By the way, James, I _still_ insist corn tastes blue."

"You're all prats."

"It tastes _yellow_," said James after a pause. Lily sighed.

****

Lily waited a while before her first prank. It was a couple of weeks into term, and by then the four boys were nearly driven mad with anticipation. Sirius asked her at least five times a day when she would finally perform. She decided her first would be in the Great Hall. She felt a little badly, knowing full well that the Marauders would be instantly blamed. But really, none of them would care, and might laugh the entire thing off.

Once the Hall was full for breakfast, Lily wasn't exactly hungry. Instead, she tingled with excitement at the prospect of her first official prank. She spent the meal watching the windows, waiting for the daily owls. She also watched the ceiling. So far, no one had noticed the floating pellets she had charmed. Even the professors ate in peace.

"Hey, Lil," said Sirius, using the same two-word opening he always used before he asked the usual question. She held up her hand, and he froze at the grin she had. The owls had arrived.

"Lily, what are you..." Remus began, but the progressive screams in the room stopped him. Lily had her wand raised, barely poking out from under the table, aiming at the ceiling. As the owls flew over their heads, the pellets dropped. White pellets, that burst as soon as they hit.

The entire Hall was covered. Students shrieked as white pellets splashed on their hair and robes and all over their food. Lily especially delighted in the Slytherins jumping up and squealing, trying frantically to wipe the supposed owl droppings off their robes.

"Euw!" Sirius screamed, trying to do the exact same thing. "Oh, euw _euw_! Couldn't those _stupid_ owls wait until they delivered? Oh, _gross_! My bacon is _ruined_!"

Lily shrieked with laughter, and Sirius stopped dancing around to stare at her. In fact, all of the Marauders stared at her in shock.

"Wait a minute..." James said, poking a bit on a spot on the table. "This isn't... _Lily_! Did _you_...?"

"Homemade owl droppings," she said, giggling. "Water, flour and sugar. Held in very little balloons, shrunk to size. They've been floating up near the ceiling since six o'clock this morning." She grinned wider at the astonished expressions of them all. Sirius sat down, quite put out.

"I can't believe I fell for it," he said, smiling to her. "Good one, Lily."

"Thank you," said Lily proudly, then nodded to the Slytherin table. "Snape is especially upset about all of this, it seems."

It was true, they all found out when they looked. Snape was still shouting in disgust, and his 'friends' were trying to charm all the 'droppings' off of his hair and robes.

"As if his hair needed to be any dirtier," said Remus lightheartedly.

"You all seem mighty calm about this," said a seventh-year Gryffindor girl angrily, glaring at all the boys, and even shot Lily a look. "I'm guessing you're to blame for this?"

"_Us_?" Sirius looked appalled. "Come on, Kate, you can't blame _us_ for this. It's the owls, but you know, don't blame them either. When you gotta go, you gotta go."

Kate only snorted and stormed off.

****

Lily's pranks all year were original, and brilliant. "I'm saving the best for last," she kept saying to them, though she never revealed her list of ideas. Several times went by when Snape ended up the brunt of the pranks, of course. He blamed the Marauders all the time of course, though they played less pranks then ever, and more or less let Lily take over this year. She was more then happy to oblige.

"I'm not going to be doing this all year," she informed them one day at lunch. "I'm thinking Christmas will be my last one."

"Aw, why?" asked Sirius, obviously disappointed.

"Well, I don't have much left," said Lily. "Only around three more. You guys took all my other ideas in the last six years. Don't worry, the last one is really good, and I have a good place to do it too."

"Is the last one for Christmas time?" asked Remus.

"Yes."

"Snape?" asked Sirius hopefully.

Lily smiled. "Maybe," she said. "By the way, James, I need the map for it. I don't need it now, I have two more easy ones. But with the last one, I'll need it."

James looked at her oddly. "Sure, Lil," he said. "As long as you aren't caught."

"I haven't been yet, have I?" she asked.

"Aw, isn't that sweet?" Sirius said, looking to Peter and Remus. "Prongs protecting his little doe from detention. It's cute, really."

"Shut up, Padfoot."

****

Christmas time came. The last two pranks were good, of course. One was in the middle of Potions, and the other involved Snape's broom singing opera-style a few unchaste comments to him during a Quidditch game. This in itself had almost proved fatal to James, who had nearly fallen off his broom laughing. Snape had gotten detention, as Lily had made sure the lewd comments were directed at the other team, making people think a Slytherin did it.

"I need the map now," said Lily right before dinner. James gave her an odd look.

"You're not eating tonight?"

"Nah. Had a big lunch. C'mon, James," she grinned. "Do you have the map with you?"

"Actually, Siri has it."

"Thanks. See you later, all right?" She bounced off towards the doorway of the Great Hall, where Sirius was talking animatedly to a couple of smitten sixth year girls, who were sorely disappointed when Lily grabbed Sirius and dragged him away.

"Lil!" Sirius complained loudly. "I was just getting to the good part where I dove down on my broomstick and caught the little kid's doll right before it fell off the cliff!"

"Sirius, you've never even flown _near_ a cliff before."

"They don't know that," said Sirius sulkily.

"Oh, shush, or I'll cast a truth spell on you in front of them, and then ask you whose name you were screaming in your sleep the other night."

Sirius paled and nodded quickly. "So, anything you need?"

"The map."

"Oh... hang on," Sirius said. He trotted over to a corner, pulled the blank parchment from his paper, tapping it with his wand and muttering under his breath so Lily couldn't hear. He hid the paper, then walked back to her and discreetly handed it to her. "Sorry, Lil," he grinned. "You can't know the top secret password until you're a _real_ Marauder. You're getting there, though. Feel like telling me what you're about to use this for? Just to make sure you won't abuse it."

"I could never do any worse then you have, Siri," Lily said flatly, gently tucking the paper into her pocket.

"Wow," said Sirius emotionally. "I'm touched, Lily."

"But I won't tell you. You'll hear about it though. Do me a favor though."

"Eh?"

"Make sure Snape knows you're all at dinner. Then he won't have anyone to blame for the... thing."

Sirius grinned broadly. "That's no problem," he said, shrugging. "And I'm pleased, by the way. Whatever you have planned, it sounds evil."

Lily smiled. "Thank you."

****

A weather balloon. This was all Lily had with her, and a plan. An evil, nearly impossible plan, but a plan. The map helped her with the password to the Slytherin common room. To her luck, no one was around. Everyone was at dinner. Lily dragged the balloon up to the boys' seventh year dorms.

"Please, whatever God will listen, do _not_ let me get caught," Lily grunted as she slowly pushed open the door and had a quick look around. Empty. With a silent breath of thanks, she sat the balloon down and pointed her wand at it. "_Compleo aqua_," she hissed, and the balloon began to grow slowly, pushing trunks and bending everything out of its way. It consumed the room in no time, and she stopped the spell, grinning madly. She pulled away out of the room and closed the door.

No one stopped her on her way out of the dorm, but heading up the hallways to the Great Hall, Snape walked nearly right into her. Three other Slytherin seventh-year boys stood behind him, scowling at her.

"Ugh, Evans," he sneered, stepping away from her and shaking his head to clear it. "What the hell are you _doing_?"

"Heading to dinner, Snape," she said, scowling at him. He tended to grind her nerves. "And watch your language, Snape, before you start sounding like your broom." Grinning at his furious expression, she flipped her red hair behind her shoulder and, with chin lifted high, she stormed past him.

"If that stupid _boyfriend_ of yours keeps this up, Evans, he'll regret it," hissed Snape, but she didn't stop walking and basically ignored him.

However, once out of sight, she slowed her step and began to become worried. Snape would in fact be infuriated, not to mention his following goonies. She worried about what Snape and them might do to James.

James was still in the Great Hall, and was almost surprised to see her there as she sat down next to him. "Done already?" he asked.

"I've had practice," she said dryly. "James, has Snape threatened to hurt you because of my pranks?"

Sirius, who sat across from them, snorted into his cup of pumpkin juice. She shot him a deadly glare, and he grinned at her. "_Please_, Lil," he said. "He does that at _least_ once a day. Can't give yourself full credit for that."

"I know, but..." Lily blushed. "This last one might... it might be bad."

"What did you do?" asked Peter, wide-eyed with curiosity.

Lily didn't answer, wondering also how the professors would react. Would James be expelled? She became paler then usual, and thought on this. She almost didn't hear James asking her what was wrong. She decided, even though they insisted she shouldn't, that if it was bad, she would take the blame. After all, it was her.

"Huh?" She blinked when James shook her lightly. "What?"

"Lily, are you all right?"

The four of them had stopped eating and were staring at her.

"Oh," Lily blushed. "I'm fine."

"Tell us what you did, Lily," said Remus gently.

"You'll find out soon enough I bet," said Lily, and as if on cue, there was a raging scream in the hallways, growing louder as whoever it was came closer.

The Hall snapped into silence and stopped eating, staring at the doorway expectantly. A moment later, an irate Snape and Goons appeared in the door, fully immersed with water. Sirius dropped his fork and Remus' jaw dropped. Peter choked on his bite of food and James mouthed in disbelief. Snape was scanning the Gryffindor table in rage, ignoring the open stares of every student and professor.

"POTTER!" he screamed when he spotted James. Lily jumped up when Snape pulled out his wand and the students all gasped.

"_Mr. Snape_!"

Even Snape froze and looked to the staff table where a very annoyed Dumbledore stood up and glared at both James and Snape in turn. "Both... no, all of you come with me." He turned and walked to the door behind the table. No one had to ask who 'all of you' was. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter stood up and walked, following him, along with a very livid Snape with his soaked goons.

Lily hesitated a while after the door shut before she scrambled after them. Only a few people noticed her, as most had gone back to eating. She heard Snape shout accusations, as she burst into the room.

"It seems detentions aren't enough to punish-- Ms. Evans?" Dumbledore turned, as did every other head in the room, staring at her in mixes of expressions: irritation, confusion, shock, fear.

"Headmaster!" Lily breathed, walking into the room and closing the door. She was trembling from head to toe, fearful. Would he revoke her position as Head Girl...? Swallowing, afraid for James and the three, she spoke shakily. "J-James and them didn't do this. It was me."

Snape snorted. "_Please_, Evans," he said. "Cute, trying to stand up for'_J-James_'... but give it up. This is purely _them_." He shot the four boys a deadly look.

"No!" said Lily. "It wasn't... I _swear_ it was me. You _saw_ James and all of them at dinner, Snape, and you all!" she glared at the goons. James was staring at her in disbelief. "You know they had no chance to, but _I_ wasn't there. And none of them had access to a weather balloon. I bought it this summer to use for that exact reason, and I can also tell you the charm I used for it! It was--"

"That is quite enough, Ms. Evans," said Dumbledore calmly. "Though I'm shocked by it, I think I believe you. Mr. Potter, Mr. Black? Also Mr's Lupin and Pettigrew? Is this true?"

"You can use Veritaserum if you don't believe--" Lily began, but the Headmaster cast her a look that made her fall silent.

"I..." James looked pitiful, glancing an apologetic look at Lily that she didn't understand. "No. No, I did it."

Snape snorted again, and Dumbledore smiled benignly. "James, I do apologize, but six years of pranks have not polished your lying skills. You're still as bad at it as you were at eleven years old," he same. James reddened and looked crushed, then the Headmaster looked at Lily. "Ms. Evans, I'm surprised at your behavior, and I must give you detention. Your first, I believe?"

"Well, I had one first year for beating James over the head with a book," said Lily, smiling. Snape blinked at her.

"Er," Dumbledore blinked. "Yes, of course. Your second then. You will remain Head Girl, of course, so don't worry about that." He winked at her blinking expression. "You'll meet with Professor McGonnagal tomorrow morning to discuss your punishment. And Mr. Snape? Will you and the others please go change into some drier robes before you mildew the wood floors?"

****

Lily sat in the Common Room that night, waiting up for James and the others, who had snuck out under his invisibility cloak for some reason or another. She decided to make the best of her time and study for Charms, even though she was certainly the best in the class, and classes didn't start up again until after Christmas was over.

She heard the portrait hole swing open and looked up expectantly. She looked at her watch and sighed... nearly one o' clock in the morning. Tapping a quill on the book corner, she smiled at the quiet and collective snickers as an invisible entity entered the room.

"Well, well, James. Looks as if you were right." Sirius. "She waited up for us after all."

"Who says I'm waiting, and not just studying?" Lily asked smugly.

"Because that's a Charms book and you haven't had to study for Charms since third year," said Remus dryly. Peter laughed.

Lily rolled her eyes, knowing this wasn't at all true. "Will you four take the cloak off already? I'm the only one here, trust me. Everyone went to bed hours ago."

They complied, and the silvery cloak dropped to the floor. Lily gasped and dropped her quill, staring in shock. They stood, grinning madly, each holding something. James held a red balloon, Remus held plates and forks, Peter held napkins, and Sirius was holding a small pink cake.

"What the..." she asked. "Whose birthday is it?"

"It's a pink cake, so it's not any of _us_," said Peter quickly as they set it down on the ground, beckoning Lily to sit down with them all. She laughed and joined them in the small circle on the floor.

"Then what is this?"

"Your official initiation, _duh_," said Sirius, handing her a plate. "To the _Marauders_, of course, in case you didn't know. I would say we had some huge long meeting to discuss the matter, and that we voted, and re-voted, slept on it, then voted again, but it's not true. The meeting lasted five seconds. Votes were unanimous."

Lily stared in disbelief even as Peter put a large piece of cake on her plate and handed her a fork. "Don't tell me I've been doing all these pranks for nothing then," she said.

"No," said Remus. "We decided tonight, right after dinner."

"You mean when I got a detention?" Lily suddenly scowled, bristling in anger. "You mean to say this entire time you've been waiting for me to get in trouble before I was one of you? Before it was official?"

Remus, Peter and Sirius all scooted back instantly, knowing full well the famous Lily Temper. James spoke, however.

"No, Lily," he said seriously. "The Marauders aren't all about pranks and detentions. We never have been, not mostly. Sure, that's important. But it's not what's the most important over anything."

"Then what's the more important thing?" asked Lily, frowning.

"More then anything, the most important to us, is friendship, love, and loyalty. You know about Remus, about his illness. We all stuck with him, we all sacrificed a lot to be friends. We've become a tight group, standing up for eachother, helping eachother, lifting eachother up in need. I've gotten detention for things Sirius has done, and Remus. Sirius has gotten detention for things I've done. Remus has gotten detention for things Sirius has done. And hell, Peter's gotten detention just for hanging around."

"Which has to be a record somewhere," said Peter flatly, earning a friendly slap on the back from a grinning Remus.

"We weren't waiting for the perfect prank," said James, ignoring them and taking Lily's hands in his. "We weren't waiting for you to be yelled at, or for you to get a bad detention. We were waiting for you to show the same loyalty that we already knew you had. When you followed us, risked your position as Head Girl, risked your reputation, all to bail us out... we knew then that you were a _true_ Marauder."

Everyone was quiet. Lily sniffed and found, to her own surprise, that she was crying. She blinked the tears out of her eyes and smiled crookedly at James. "Really?" she asked in a pathetic squeak. 

"Yeah. Seriously."

"Yes?" asked Sirius brightly, sniggering when Remus smacked him upside the head.

"Oh, _James_," Lily nearly burst with emotion, letting out a sob and flinging her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know. Well, really though, it makes sense. What with all you guys are always doing for each other. I just didn't think that was a Marauder thing, just a... oh, _James_!" She pulled away from the hug enough to kiss him deeply.

"Whoa," said Sirius wryly. "If we get treatment like that every time we land a girl in detention, we should do it more often."

"Shut up, Padfoot," said Remus, smiling as the couple pulled away from each other and smiled at their friends. "Can we eat our cake now? Is the serious time past?"

"The Sirius time is _never_ past," said Sirius brightly.

"Ugh."

Peter was the first to reach his piece of cake, which was waiting for him closer to the circle. "So, does Lil need a nickname too?" he asked, grinning as he took a bite.

"We already _had_ this conversation," said Remus, rolling his eyes as if remembering something rather tedious.

"Oh, did you?" asked Lily. "Did any of you come up with something?"

There was a hesitant pause. "Well," Sirius answered slowly. "I suggested Carrots, but James calmly informed me that you'd use a dull quill to saw off my--" Remus choked and jabbed Sirius in his side with his elbow. "_Oof_! Er... my nose. You'd saw off my nose."

Lily snorted, knowing better. "Good thinking," she said calmly.

"We also thought something to do with a Doe, since James is Prongs," said Remus, smiling. "Thus making mating much more possible."

Sirius barked a laugh. "As if they were having trouble?"

"Moony! _Padfoot_!" James blushed and glared.

"Nevermind, nevermind," Lily shook her head and smiled. "We'll think of something in time. After all, I'm sure it took Sirius two years to come up with 'Padfoot',"-- Sirius interrupted with a '_hey_!'-- "So for now I'm fine with Lily."

"Or Lil. Or Lils. Or 'James' Favorite Marauder'."

"Shut up, Sirius."

Lily finally began to eat her cake in silence for a while, then said thoughtfully, "I hope you guys aren't expecting me to always jump up to take a detention, you know. Wouldn't want to tarnish my reputation too badly, you know."

"Even if you did," said Sirius. "You tarnished it up plenty as soon as you started dating James."

"Hmph," said James.

Lily smiled sweetly to James. "That's a reputation I've always been willing to muck up."

"Ugh," said Sirius. "That's not the only think you've mucked up with that issue. I saw James' bedsheets the other day--"

"Sirius?" asked Remus. "Is 'shut up' in your vocabulary?"

Sirius thought about it for a moment, squinting, then he smiled. "No," he said cheerily.

James at first had been glaring at Sirius, but then he shrugged and winked at Lily, grinning the famous 'Marauder grin'. "So, Lil... I figured, you know, this is the official welcome to the Marauders party... but I kind of wanted to give you my own welcome."

Lily guessed that James had hoped to at least sicken Sirius, but his best friend only shrugged. "Oh, right. I remember that rule too. You have to sleep with a member to become official. Well, Lil, got that one covered."

"And I suppose you do too?" asked Lily, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I was official to begin with. Remus had to-- nevermind. Don't look at me like that, I'm _kidding_."

"What about me?" asked Peter.

"We made an exception with _you_, Wormtail."

"Hey!"

James rolled his eyes. "Are you guys tired?" he asked them.

Sirius looked only momentarily puzzled, and Remus hid a smile. Peter didn't get it. "What do you mean?" he asked. "We've stayed up longer then this plenty of times. It's not like--" Sirius coughed and Peter looked at him, confused. Then, very suddenly, it clicked. He squeaked and paled instantly. "Oh! Right. Sure. Tired. _Exhausted_. I think I'll go up to bed. Now. Right _now_. Before... yeah, just. _Now_. Right. G'night Lil, 'night James." He grabbed his plate and fork, then scrambled off up the stairs to the boys dorm.

Remus followed afterwards, taking the cake and everyone's plates and forks, shrugging off the thanks they offered. He left, Sirius remained. He stood, bowed with a dramatic, "Farewell, milady. Bed him well." Before Lily could throw something at him, he scurried up the stairs and out of sight.

James and Lily were alone now. Lily sighed at Sirius' parting and rolled her eyes with a patient smile. "All about the friendship, right?" she asked.

"And loyalty," said James, smiling. "Which is why I haven't killed any of them yet."

"Or them you," said Lily, winking. "Or each other. You can all be rather annoying at times. I believe I'm the only sane one among you, Prongs."

"Which used to be me," James laughed. "Tough position. Thanks for taking it."

"No problem."

"I love you, you know," said James softly, very suddenly serious as he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand.

"I love you too, James," said Lily, smiling affectionately as her green eyes met his brown.

"I always knew you'd pass the test."

"There's never been a test I've failed at," said Lily good-naturedly.

"You know, though... most of all... I want to be with you forever, Lily Evans," said James, pulling her into a warm hug. A bit surprised and quietly pleased, she formed into his arms, smiling into his chest. "I want us to graduate, move in together. I want us to be married, Lil. I want to have children, grow up happy, without fear or..." He stopped here, his thoughts elsewhere.

"We will, James," Lily whispered. "I want it too. We'll have it. We'll have children, as many as you want. We'll always be together, James Potter. Always."

James seemed to hear a small hesitation in her voice, for he smiled down into her hair and added, "Sirius won't live with us."

"Thank you."

They both ignored the quiet _'huff_' of indignation from the top of the stairs.

****

THE END

****

A/N: When I first started this, I wasn't expecting to put any fluff in. But as I wrote, I realized it was kind of required. Can't have Lily initiated without a few teary smiles, right? Also very _very_ slight Sirius+Remus hints(who spotted 'em? ;)) and also slight ironic hints at the future. Die Peter die ^_~ Anyway, R/R! This is my FIRST Marauder fic thing EVER. :D


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